Trump's Jersey girl Alina Habba resigns as US attorney

Alina Habba stepped down as Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.

She was forced to accept a series of court losses challenging her temporary position leading the office, as Trump tried to force her through to the position permanently.

Attorney General Pam Bondi tore into ‘politicized judges’ and admitted that recent court rulings have made it ‘untenable’ for Habba to ‘run her office.’

‘I am saddened to accept Alina’s resignation,’ Bondi wrote in a statement on Monday.

Trump’s Justice Department, Bondi said, will continue reviewing the court’s decision to look for other ways to get Habba back into her seat in her home state of New Jersey.

In the meantime, Habba announced she will still work for the DOJ but as Senior Advisor to the Attorney General for US Attorneys.

President Donald Trump lamented about the disqualification, and said that even if Habba were George Washington the Democrats wouldn’t let her become a Trump-appointed US attorney.

‘The Republicans should be ashamed of themselves that they allow this to go on because I can’t appoint a US attorney that’s not a Democrat because they put a block on it,’ Trump said, urging Republicans in Congress to bypass the blockade.

‘The only people you can get by are Democrats, because they’ll put a hold on it,’ the president continued during an agriculture roundtable at the White House on Monday. ‘If I put up George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to be US Attorney in New Jersey or to be US Attorney in Virginia, we have Democrat senators, they will not approve them.’

Attorney General Pam Bondi said she was ‘saddened to accept Alina’s resignation’ but announced she would continue working at DOJ as Senior Advisor to the Attorney General for US Attorneys.

On December 1, 2025, a three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld a lower court’s rulings that Habba was unlawfully serving as Acting US Attorney for New Jersey.

This unanimous appellate decision officially disqualified her from the role pending any further appeal.

It came after Habba was interim Attorney for the 120-day period.

Trump tried to keep her in the position by overruling the official selection of her replacement pending a true confirmation process. He instead had her placed as Acting US Attorney.

But the courts ruled this was not legal.

‘As a result of the Third Circuit’s ruling, and to protect the stability and integrity of the office which I love, I have decided to step down in my role as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey,’ Habba wrote in a statement on Monday.

‘But do not mistake compliance for surrender,’ she added. ‘This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me.’

Habba says her new role at DOJ will now give her even more power ‘across the country.’

‘Make no mistake, you can take the girl out of New Jersey, but you cannot take New Jersey out of the girl,’ she concluded.

Habba was Trump’s loyal attorney during a series of lawsuits he faced between his first and second term.

After the legal sagas were over, Habba joined Trump’s 2024 campaign as a senior advisor. And when he won the election, she came to Washington, DC to serve as Counselor to the President.

But after only a few months in the position, Habba wanted to go back to New Jersey – her home state and where her husband and children live.

That’s when Trump found the perfect place for her – US Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Or so he thought.

She was nominated for the role but installed in interim status in the meantime. It soon became clear that Habba was too controversial for the Senate to play ball and giver her a confirmation hearing.

That’s when Trump’s DOJ tried to play legal gymnastics by removing her interim replacement – selected by a panel of judges – and instead re-installed her as Acting US Attorney.

Habba was forced to give up the title this week after the Third Circuit’s ruling.